The Truth About Metroids and Space Pirates
by thag-the-upset
Summary: My very first fic. My version of the life story of Samus Aran, only darker. Please R&R so I may return the favor. Chapter 2 revamped, yes I'm STILL alive!
1. Bloody Dawn

Disclaimer: I do not own Samus Aran or any part of the metroid universe.

BLOODY DAWN

Lies. That seems to be all my life is, a string of lies. Hell, I am nothing but a lie.

Who am I? Samus Aran. Ace bounty hunter, bane of the Space Pirates and savior of all mankind.

I hope that we as a species will all burn...

But I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself, nothing causes one to rush quite like anger, resentment and sorrow...

My earliest memories must have been from when I was about three. A surprising feat for most people, being able to remember so far back...

Its easy when you see it all every time you close your eyes...

I was alone... And ironically, though I would come to seek out similar solitude as an adult, the lonely darkness terrified me then...

I cried, I screamed, I wailed for a long time. I was cold, hungry and frightened...

And for the longest time, my cries went unanswered.

Until they came...

The door to my "room", literally little more than a small closet with a crib, opened.

A large, bluish monstrosity of a creature stood looking at me with multifaceted eyes...

A Space Pirate I would later find out they were called...

It turned its head and clicked out something in its own language, and two more appeared beside the first.

Any child in their right mind would have been terrified at the sight of such inhuman creatures...

I was just glad that I wasn't alone anymore...

So I stopped crying and reached up towards them.

They shied back at first, oddly frightened of such a little thing. but slowly, gently, the first to find me lifted me up in its pinchers.

There was a moment of fierce chattering between them, but they still took me out of the dark room and out into the light...

I don't remember much of the world itself, the planet that must have been my home... All I cared about was that I had been saved... And I slowly drifted off to sleep in the rocking arms of my benefactor...

I awoke some time later, the gentle rocking had suddenly turned to a powerful jerking...

We were running... from something...

In the distance, ahead of us was a large cave leading undergound. Around it were countless bodies. Some like the one that carried me, and some human.

War...

I suddenly heard a low hum that quickly grew louder and louder, until the alien to our right was cut down by some energy beam, splattering blue fluid around us, but the other two of my saviors keep running, ever closer to the burrow...

Another hum... another flash... and then it was just us two...

A soft whistle sounded, and the creature suddenly held me close and bent over me, knowing what I did not, that its life was as good as ended...

A deafening explosion sounded behind us and sent us hurtling yards through the air...

Though I could barely hear through the ringing of my ears, a loud "crack" still sounded upon our landing, and I was awash in a bluish fluid as the alien 's life quickly bled away...

It quickly grew cold, and though I didn't understand any of what had happened, I knew I was in danger, and that I had to run...

'I crawled as fast as I could, the burrow only a few feet away, somehow I knew it held safety, peace...

It must have for my rescuers to have thrown their lives away to get there...

But just as I reached the mouth, the terrifying hum returned...

I opened my mouth to scream, but all that came out was a choking gasp as a line of pain flashed through my backside... and everything went black...

The truth? It IS true that I was the only survivor of our human colony, but we were no civilians. We were a military outpost. Established to destroy the first of an amazing species we did not even try to understand. One that was capable of caring for, and saving one of their own enemy that was ruthlessly butchering them...


	2. Hazy Morn

HAZY MORN

The darkness eveloped me for a long time... I was still too young to understand the concept of death, but I could feel myself on the edge of something. I dreamed... I relieved what had happened... Being alone, being rescued, being hurt...

After what seemed like ages, I finally found myself in a different room than the one from my memories. It was the room that I would spend the rest of my youth in...

Dimly lit, there was only one door, a large mirror on one wall, and a bed that I was lying on on the other. The only other item of note was a small cabinet opposite the door that would suddenly have food when it was time to eat. Though they would become some of my happiest years of my life, I was unaware that it was just like a prison cell...

A gentle, melodic voice finally spoke to me.

Her name was Joy, and she was to be my foster parent. Ironic, that she would be the only joy in my life...

Her waist-long blonde hair framed a compassionate yet sorrowful face. Despite my years of living with her, only her eyes truly remain vivid in my mind. An unusual shade of violet, and the irises were horizontal slits rather than the circles mine were.

I sat up and winced. A large metal panel stretched across the back of my waist, limiting my movement. Over the years I frequently asked Joy why I had to wear the thing, and her reply was always the same. That I had bad kidneys, and that the machine was what did that function for me. She also told me I had needed a large donation of blood, which she had happily given, glad to make a small sacrifice to save my life.

I always trusted Joy... So I did not question this answer, and thought it nothing more than coincidence that the plate was right where the light had burned me before.

It was actually Joy who gave me my name. She had always called me Samus Aran. She said it fit me, it was from an old, long lost language that meant "surviving hope".

I spent many happy years with Joy, blissfully ignorant of the galaxy beyond our room, and perfectly content with what I had. Occassionally, I would awaken to find items had been placed in our room. Treadmills, weights, and other pysical training equipment. Joy would say that it was important that I use these items to become strong...

And it was Joy, I had no reason to doubt her...

As most children do, I would occasionally grow curious of the outside world. I'd ask where the door would lead, even though it was always locked, where our food in the cabinet came from, and where we had come from.

Joy would smile sadly and pat me on the head and say "You'll know soon enough," and that would be the end of the discussion.

There was only one point of discord between us. Around my sixth birthday, I recounted my recurring dream of my earliest memory, that fateful day when the gentle monsters found me in the dark, and took me out into the light. Joy looked about nervously, sighed and sat me down on the bed. "Samus," she said after a long pause. "Those monsters were Space Pirates. They weren't trying to save you, they wanted to take you away, to hurt you..."

"No!" I interrupted. "They were scary-looking, but they were good monsters, they found me when I was lost alone for a long, long time."

"Samus, please..." Joy said as she folded her hands and rested her forhead on them. "They were bad, evil monsters. They wanted to hurt you..."

"No, that's not true," I insisted. "If they wanted to eat mme or something, why didn't they when they found me? Why would they carry me so carefully? Why..."

But I stopped. Joy's shoulders were shuddering with short gasps. She was crying. I had never seen her cry before or since, so the shock of it doomed me to silence. Before I knew it, I was crying too.

"Joy, I'm sorry," I sobbed. "Please, please stop crying. I won't talk about the bad monsters again..."

And I didn't... Joy was the kindest person I had ever know, or ever would know. It pained me to no end to see her suffer, especially if it was my fault. So I kept my dreams to myself, and never mentioned it again.

But somewhere deep inside, I knew that what she had insisted wasn't true...

Despite this one incident, my childhood was a quiet and happy one. Joy took care of all my schooling, and with no other real recreation, I exercised in my free time. The result was that I was quick-witted and strong when I hit 16. It would be the last day I would truly be happy...

Joy had always been kind and loving to me, yet something about her, her very aura, seemed to emanate a terrible sense of sadness.

But that day, my sixteenth birthday, she was sadder than usual. Though she smiled and spoke no differently, I could feel it. I could sense her feelings of upcoming sorrow and regret.

But the last thing I wanted was to make her more sad, to make her cry again. So I grinned and hid the sadness she had unexpectedly infected me with.

It was around midday, that is it was about between when I would awake and when I would sleep, whenever that was. A sudden hiss sounded, and made me jump. Joy looked at the room's door. "Samus..." she spoke in barely a whisper. "Remember that, no matter what, I love you. I always have, and always will..."

My emotional dam burst at the fear in her voice, and tears were suddenly filling my eyes. "Joy? Why do you say that? Are you going away?"

Behind me the door's hissing stopped and the portal made a series of clicks.

"No," a voice I had never heard said behind me.

I turned and immediately shielded my eyes from the hall's relatively brilliance compared to the dim room I had spent most of my life in.

"But you are." the stranger continued.

My eyes began to adjust, and the man's features slowly came into focus. He was tall by human standards. His black hair was combed and greased back, matching a well-trimmed moustache. His eyes were as gray and cold as steel, his features cracked and wrinkled with age and worry.

But his anxiety and tension were different from the kind Joy often displayed, more a sense of fear and anger, than sadness and despair...

The truth? The truth is that I never knew my real parents, but Joy was more of a parent than any child could ask for. She loved me like I was her own. I loved her back, and I still do to this day. I just wish she had been honest with me, that she had been the one to tell me the truth, rather than having to find out for myself...


	3. Dark Awakening

DARK AWAKENING  
  
Thag: Look Samus, I'm sorry, this story is fictional. I would never put you through all this on purpose.  
  
Samus Aran: What? You think I'm just some toy for you to do with as you please?  
  
Thag: No Samus, never. I just . . .  
  
Samus Aran: Shut up you pig! Let me tell you something, you don't own me, Metroids or any part of my universe, so GET BENT! (storms off)  
  
Thag: That hurts Samus, it hurts deep. . .  
  
  
  
"We're on a starship?!" I squealed with glee.  
  
The man glanced at the window out to infinite space and chuckled, "Not quite, a starbase actually, orbiting the planet Karron II."  
  
I pushed up against the window and looked up to the greenish world above. "Wow, I had no idea . . ."  
  
"Sorry about that, but we were not sure how you'd react. Kids your age tend to cope best." He smiled, but it somehow seemed . . . hollow. "My name is Colonel Glauss, I'm happy to introduce you to TheGaurdian," he rested his palm on the hull before crouching down to my height and looking me in the eye. "Samus, we've been watching you for some time now. It is plain to see you are a very special girl, and we, the Galactic Federation would love to have you with us."  
  
Only two kinds of people fall for empty flattery: Fools and children.  
  
I was both.  
  
"Wow, will I get to shoot bad aliens and stuff?"  
  
He laughed a warm hearty laugh, it still haunts my dreams. "Maybe. What we are going to do today is some assessment testing."  
  
We came to a stop at a large, green door. He palmed a small screen and it opened. Inside was a brightly lit examination room, containing only a small desk, a chair and a chest in front of them. Standing next to the chest was a tall, frail man with frizzled gray hair.  
  
"This is Dr. Kenan, he's just going to give you a few simple tests and games to do." I remembered tests from Joy's schooling and frowned. Glauss laughed, "Don't worry, there is no right or wrong answers, we just want to see what you'd be good at. I'll be back in a few hours to pick you up."  
  
The tests held no challenge for me. I solved puzzles ranging from jigsaws, to tangrams, to image recognition. Then came a quick assessment of my physical skills, running laps around the small room, dodging between poles and pushups.  
  
I remember Dr. Kenan would only describe the challenges, watch me, smile and say "Very good." About midway through the testing, it occurred to me that it was strange that I had only seen the Dr., the Colonel and Joy in this huge station. Of course I had only been outside my room for a few hours now, but it still seemed odd.  
  
Finally Glauss came back. "How's my little space soldier doing?"  
  
Even at that age, I disliked being patronized, but this man only just met me so he didn't know any better. "I'm a bit tired, but I'm okay."  
  
The Colonel led me though another hallway. "Did you have any trouble with the tests?" I shook my head. "Good. Let's get you a REAL room now."  
  
He opened the nearest door and led me inside. It was wonderful. The walls were a light blue, and much farther apart than my gloomy cell had been. The bed was enormous, and covered with various stuffed animals. There was a nice bathroom with a Jacuzzi. It was almost perfect, but something was missing, "Where's Joy?"  
  
Glauss looked out the window, "She has some other work we need her to do." He turned and flashed his empty smile, "Don't worry, if you need anything just push this little button." He waved at a small intercom. "Dinner will be sent in through that small door next to your table in a while. Then get some rest, tomorrow we'll see how you did." And without a simple good-bye, he left.  
  
For the first time since that "dream" that "didn't happen" I was alone. It scared me. For a long time I lay on my bed, straining to hear anything, any sign of life. There was only the dull hum of the lights. What if I didn't do good enough on the tests? That was it. They had locked me in a pretty shuttle and jettisoned me out into the cold of space for being a failure. My eyes began to tear up when a sudden chirp of the computer made me sit up with a start. "Dinner miss Aran" a male voice sounded out of the intercom. A plate of my favorite, Lasagna and mashed potatoes (A/N: don't knock it till you've tried it!) slid onto my table.  
  
I ate in silence, my mind too busy thinking to even consider crying. They wouldn't do that. They wouldn't just discard me if I failed the tests, besides, I thought I did pretty good. And what about Joy? For the eleven years we were together she had never, not once left me. What else could she have to do? I sighed, realizing I was being selfish, but I missed her. It is true, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.  
  
I pushed the empty plate and silverware through the door and sat on my bed to meditate. Once when I woke up from my sleep, I had seen Joy sitting in lotus position with her eyes closed but as soon as I awoke they snapped open. "What were you doing Joy?"  
  
She smiled, oh how I missed that smile already, "I was meditating. My people firmly believe that there is a, a force that flows through all things in the universe. Whenever we have a spare moment, we relax, breathe deeply and clear our minds. Sometimes we can feel this force, and through it feel and discover many things in the universe, and in ourselves."  
  
I mimicked her pose. "I don't feel anything." I had said.  
  
"You're trying too hard. Just relax and let your mind be at peace. Practice and someday you will."  
  
I shifted back to the present. "Joy," I whispered "What . . . what am I supposed to do? What will I do without you?"  
  
As if in response, a memory suddenly came to me. "Joy," I had said, "How can I tell what's right and wrong? If everything one person does affects another, how do I do the right thing?"  
  
She was silent for some time, then walked over and embraced me. "Samus," she whispered, "you are a wonderful person, and have a beautiful heart." She clasped my head and looked into my eyes. "Listen to it. Have faith in yourself and all that you do with all your heart, and you shall do no wrong."  
  
A knock on my door startled me awake. I must've dozed off. "Samus? Good morning!" Glauss. The door slid open and he walked in and set a package on the bed. "Get changed Samus, we have much to do today." And without waiting for me to speak, he left.  
  
I opened the white plastic to reveal a suit like his. A pair of black boots, green pants and a red vest bearing the words Galactic Federation Army on the shoulder.  
  
  
  
The truth? The truth is that I am just a lone bounty hunter, not some soldier in the army. So what happened? What changed my life so much to become a mere civilian after being a prodigy soldier at the age of sixteen? That one, simple force that gives life, takes it and shifts the cosmos to it's will.  
  
Fate. 


End file.
